Number of the Day
The Crashing Cost of Turkey, by the Numbers
Turkey is three times cheaper today than it was in the mid-20th century
3x: That’s how many times the price of a 16-pound turkey has fallen in the last 85 years, from $61 in 1935 (adjusted for inflation) to $19.39 today, according to data from the USDA and the American Farm Bureau survey, as reported by Future Human.
Farmer Georgie writes on Future Human about changes in the turkey industry beginning in the 1950s that lowered the price of turkey, which included a shift from heritage turkey breeds raised on family farms to today’s white-feathered, broad-breasted turkeys, which are bred for their ability to grow quickly and produce large quantities of meat. The latter have to be artificially inseminated and are typically grown in environmentally controlled warehouses.
Today, farmers who raise heritage turkey breeds on pastures charge something like $12 a pound, several times the per-pound-price of a commercial frozen turkey. Even a premium commercial brand like Butterball sells its frozen turkeys for around $1 a pound.
